Photo Friday: Chasing Waterfalls and a Close Encounter

Last week, we took Middle Child on a vacation to Virginia. We have a crazy summer ahead of us, so  we thought a Spring trip would be nice, plus better weather. We’ve been to Virginia when it’s 100 degrees; not fun. I was actually cold this time and wore long sleeves the entire trip.

Our first few days were spent in Shenandoah National Park. It’s a long, narrow park with one road running north and south called Skyline Drive, which is 105 miles long. It took us two days to drive it at the 35 mph speed limit, along with five hikes. I chose the hikes marked ‘easy,’ but I honestly only thought one of them was easy, and I’m in fairly good shape! Our main complaint was the lack of trail signs and hiking information on the pamphlet given when you enter the park. Better details can be found online, but we frequently didn’t have cell service while up in the mountains, which proved frustrating. We ended up relying on fellow hikers who seemed to know where they were going, and I suspect were locals.

I remember being there as a teen and thinking it was boring. My parents were not hikers, so we only did the Skyline Drive, stopping at overlooks. I do not exaggerate when I say there are 85 overlooks because I counted them on the map!

What the majority of the overlooks look like.

Overlook with a lake.

In the distance, the Blue Ridge Mountains do look blue, but you can see up close that they are completely covered in green trees.

Overlook with the 'iconic' dead tree. Supposedly, an Instagram famous shot.

Our first hike was Fox Hollow Trail. We were walking single file with me in the lead when I snapped this photo. No more than a minute later, I noticed something move to my right, about 2 feet from me. I shrieked and the 'something' turned out to be a BLACK BEAR, which jumped at the sound of my voice and scurried a few feet into the woods.

I guess we should have paid more attention to the sign posted.

We did know to not run or turn our backs, so we just stood there for about a minute. My husband tried to zoom in with his iphone. You can see the bear to the left of the middle tree. We then slowly made our way backwards and came upon an older woman hiker. We told her we saw a bear and she thanked us and continued on, as if it were no big deal! Obviously, a local.

We decided to do the loop going the other way, in hopes that by the time we made it back to that area, the bear would be gone. I really wanted to see this little cemetery on the hike. It's the Fox burial grounds, the family who lived there before it became a national park. Fortunately, we did not encounter the bear again. My husband was hitting trees with a big stick so that we made plenty of noise.

Later that day, we decided to go on a waterfall hike to Land's Run. Here is the parking lot. As you can see, no signs. We parked on the right side, where we saw a trail going into the woods. We walked . . . . and walked . . . and walked. Never running into any other people should have been our first clue. We finally hit a dead end that had a Backcountry sign, so we turned around and headed back the way we came. Once at the parking lot again, I saw a family head to the left, down a fire road that had a chain across it. We were tired and irritated by that point, so decided to keep driving.

We ended that day on the Limberlost Trail, the only easy hike and one with signage. Plus, some beautiful wildflowers along the way, including pink trillium, which I'd never seen before.

The next day, we hiked to the summit of Stony Man Mountain. Again, confusing trails (you hike part of it on the Appalachian Trail) and not what I'd consider 'easy' due to all the rocks on the paths and the upward climb.

Our last hike, and the most popular one in the park, was to Dark Hollow Falls. Very steep and rocky (I saw one lady crying on the way back up and being consoled by her partner) but totally worth it for the views at the bottom!

We followed a few others even further down and were treated to more waterfalls. It was a great way to end our time in Shenandoah.

I'll follow this up with a few more posts about the other things we did in Virginia as well as get around to all your blogs. Then, it will be on to our next trip in June!